I tried it, and added the lines:

my $output = `perl the-script.pl`;
print CLIENT $output;
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But it just prints "smile from the server" and doesnt run the perl program. :-/

Here is the total code:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
# server0.pl
#--------------------

#use strict;
use Socket;

# use port 7890 as default
my $port = shift || 7890;
my $proto = getprotobyname('tcp');

# create a socket, make it reusable
socket(SERVER, PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, $proto) or die "socket: $!";
setsockopt(SERVER, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, 1) or die "setsock: $!";

# grab a port on this machine
my $paddr = sockaddr_in($port, INADDR_ANY);

# bind to a port, then listen
bind(SERVER, $paddr) or die "bind: $!";
listen(SERVER, SOMAXCONN) or die "listen: $!";
print "SERVER started on port $port ";

# accepting a connection
my $client_addr;
while ($client_addr = accept(CLIENT, SERVER))
{
# find out who connected
my ($client_port, $client_ip) = sockaddr_in($client_addr);
my $client_ipnum = inet_ntoa($client_ip);
my $client_host = gethostbyaddr($client_ip, AF_INET);
# print who has connected
print "got a connection from: $client_host","[$client_ipnum] ";
# send them a message, close connection
    print CLIENT "Smile from the server\n";
#    open CLIENT, ("system ("perl io-test-1.pl");");
#    open (CLIENT, "system ("perl io-test-1.pl")");
#    open CLIENT, "do `perl io-test-1.pl`";
#my $status = CLIENT, system("perl io-test-1.pl");
#CLIENT $status = CLIENT, system("perl io-test-1.pl");
    my $output = `perl io-test-1.pl`;
    print CLIENT $output;
    close CLIENT;
}
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